Today's News

Rick De Simone, of Bedford, bought a sweet business back in 1970. That’s the year he purchased Bedford’s Dairy Queen. He’s owned the place ever since and, last week, Matt Dunham, vice president of Dairy Queen of Virginia, came to Bedford to honor him for 40 years in the business.

De Simone’s relationship with Dunham’s family also goes back four decades.
“He signed a contract with my grandfather in 1971,” Dunham said.

Chuck Reid, a 30-year law enforcement veteran, will challenge Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown in this year’s election.

Reid, a Bedford County native, was first hired as a deputy in 1980 by former Sheriff Carl Wells. He began as a road deputy and later served as an investigator. Reid said that he was part of the regional homicide squad and also worked as an undercover investigator in conjunction with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.

On Aug. 14, Bob VandeLinde took up an old habit that he acquired while in the Army — jumping out of perfectly good airplanes while they are still flying.

VandeLinde was a paratrooper in the Army, a member of the 11th Airborne Division’s 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, and made combat jumps behind enemy lines during the Korean War. But this month’s jump was quite different from those he did in Korea.

It doesn’t take a hurricane or a tornado—or even an earthquake—to do a great deal of damage in a limited area.

Edley Updike was home, late Thursday afternoon, when a powerful thunderstorm rolled through. At about 4:30 p.m. a strong wind began blowing at the farm where she lives, off Mack Updike Circle.
“I was praying that the Lord would protect me, and He did,” Updike commented. “I was safe and the house was safe.”